Asger Jorn

de Dirk Luckow, Siegfried Gohr

In his colorful paintings, Danish painter and writer Asger Jorn (1914-1973) creates dynamic pictorial worlds that demonstrate in part a humorous and playful lightness yet also an apocalyptic melancholy. Driven by his keen interest in Scandinavian tradition, not least in response to the adverse times, Asger Jorn has tirelessly painted and written, while also creating an extensive body of ceramic works. In his paintings he uses an exceptionally powerful imagery that oscillates between abstraction and figuration. Throughout his career, Asger Jorn was in contact with many of his fellow artists. He was both a founding member of the CoBrA group and later of the Situationist International. The extensive book on the exhibition offers a comprehensive selection of around 60 works, with a focus on the period between the 1930s and 1970s. Major works such as 'Sans bornes' from 1959/60 and 'Im Anfang war das Bild' from 1965/66 are presented and discussed in detail. The variety of media used in his oeuvre comes to the fore in key themes and motifs that run through his entire artistic practice. These works are an eloquent testimony to the intensity and continuing relevance of his work, and are unquestionably part of the canon of 20th-century art.